Kindle Unlimited
Unlimited reading. Over 4 million titles. Learn more
Read for Free
OR
Kindle Price: $9.99

Save $15.00 (60%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Michael Gray
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan - Vol. 1 Language and Tradition: Kindle Edition (The 50th Anniversary Series) Kindle Edition

by Michael Gray (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
See all formats and editions
SONG & DANCE MAN is an established classic, available again for Dylan fans and scholars alike on the 50th Anniversary of the original edition. The work in these three volumes has been called “Monumental, endlessly illuminating.” (Rolling Stone) “Probably the greatest book about the work of a single popular musician ever to have been published.” (London Review Bookshop) and “The definitive critical work.” (Evening Standard).

Author Michael Gray is recognized as a world authority on the work and career of Bob Dylan; he was the first to consider Dylan’s writing as worthy of treatment as serious art. As author K G Miles said: “People forget that the road to the Nobel Prize was very long, took many years, and began with that book; it began with Michael Gray.”

Song & Dance Man is unique in its scope, integrating biographical, literary and musical contexts into a powerful scrutiny of Dylan as songwriter and performer.

This first volume contains the foundational and timeless analysis that made this book a classic - looking at how Dylan’s writing and performance set in the folk and literary traditions and how it compared to other efforts to write rock and pop songs. It deeply inspects and discusses Dylan’s use of language, both his early bursts of complexity and his later move towards simplicity.

Included is a special review of the song ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’ which Gray finds particularly effective and impressive, and an over 100-page chapter detailed Dylan’s fascination with and use of the pre-war blues.

The 50th Anniversary Series continues in Volumes 2 and 3:
  • VOLUME 2: Yonder Comes Sin – Centers around Dylan’s move to Born Again Christianity and beyond, this volume studies albums including Slow Train Coming and Oh Mercy plus celebrated outtake ‘Blind Willie McTell’.
  • VOLUME 3: World Gone Right – Explores Dylan’s 1990s work, including a defence of “Under The Red Sky”, a history of the folk & blues covers albums, a re-assessment of “Time Out Of Mind” and an overview of Dylan’s artistry.
Generations of listeners have turned to Song & Dance Man to more deeply understand and appreciate Dylan’s work and unique creativity. Now you can too.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    The 50th Anniversary Series
  2. Print length
    736 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    June 11, 2023
  6. File size
    1505 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
All 3 for you in this series See full series
See included books
Total Price: $29.97
By clicking on above button, you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use

Editorial Reviews

Review

ROLLING STONE: "Monumental, endlessly illuminating."

GREIL MARCUS: "Extraordinarily useful... I have always admired Gray's reach, tone, and acuity but the research here is just amazing."

SUNDAY TIMES, London: "Serious Dylan criticism... intricate analyses... monumental."

EVENING STANDARD, London: "The definitive critical work."

LONDON REVIEW BOOKSHOP: "Song & Dance Man III is probably the greatest book about the work of a single popular musician ever to have been published. "

CHRISTOPHER RICKS, author of Dylan's Visions of Sin: "Immense and immensely illuminating... It is wonderfully comic and serious and sharp. I am enjoying it hugely and learning from every page."

DAVID HADJU, author of Positively 4th Street: "It is the most penetrating and clear-headed work on his work ever done - a monumental achievement."

STEPHEN SCOBIE, University of Victoria, Canada & author of Alias Bob Dylan: "Indispensable... His research is formidable, and his knowledge encyclopedic... great cogency, confidence and authority... a quite splendid critic... Gray can explain how the text [of a song] works poetically. It's a rare gift:... [his] expositions of 'Every Grain of Sand', 'Angelina', 'Jokerman' and 'Under the Red Sky' are utterly definitive... at the heart of this book is some of the finest critical writing ever done about Bob Dylan."

AIDAN DAY, Professor of English, Edinburgh University: "This brilliant work establishes itself at once as the book on its subject, the one to which all those in the field will refer for many years to come."

THE TIMES, London: "In examining the influences that shaped Dylan into one of the most influential postwar artists, Gray draws on everyone from Elvis to Eliot, Robert Johnson to Rimbaud... This huge work is overwhelming... 'It's all been written in the book,' sang Bob Dylan. Now it really has."

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: "The last word on Dylan is neither possible nor desirable... perhaps the closest that anyone has come... is Michael Gray in his awesome and encyclopedic Song & Dance Man, currently in its third, extensively revised edition."

Q, London: "This book is an event... delivering prodigious analyses of Dylan's artistry and his polymath sources in pre- war blues, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and Hollywood movie dialogue... Gray maintains a ruthless integrity regarding Dylan himself. * * * * * "

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C4X6D9LC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The FM Press; 4th edition (June 11, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 11, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1505 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 736 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Michael Gray

Michael Gray

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

MICHAEL GRAY IS A WRITER recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan and as an expert on rock'n'roll and blues history. He also writes on travel.

HIS CLASSIC BOOK "Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan" is being re-published as a 50th Anniversary 3-Volume paperback bby The FM Press (NYC); the 1st volume, aub-titled Language & Tradition, is out now and is also available on Kindle. The ISBN for the paperback is 979-8-9-9882887-0-1. This highly regarded and pioneering study of Bob Dylan's work has been out of print for over 10 years... until now.

MICHAEL GRAY ALSO gives audio-visually rich illustrated talks at arts festivals, theaters, colleges etc. AND IS NOW ACCEPTING BOOKINGS TO SPEAK FROM OCTOBER 2023. Contact him through his website...

...HIS WEBSITE is http://www.michaelgray.net and this gives news, upcoming live appearances, a shop page where you can buy signed copies of his books, and much more.

HIS OTHER BOOKS include:

- "Outtakes on Bob Dylan: Selected Writings 1967-2021", published in hardback in the UK by Route Books.

- "The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia", a massive hardback and paperback first published in New York and London in 2006, and updated in 2008.

- "Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell", the only biography of Georgia's greatest blues singer, Blind Willie McTell, published by Bloomsbury in the UK 2007 and by Chicago Review Press in the US in late 2009.

MICHAEL ALSO CO-AUTHORED "The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley's America", published by Chartwell Books (US) in 2011.

MICHAEL GRAY HAS GIVEN TALKS at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland OH; Stanford University; the Institute for Folklore Studies in Great Britain & Canada; Goldsmiths College, London; the New School in NYC; & the University of Texas at Austin. In 2007 he gave the closing address at the University of Minnesota's 3-day symposium on Dylan's work, at which other speakers included Christopher Ricks and Greil Marcus. In 2011 he was a keynote speaker at Dylan conferences at the University of Vienna in Austra and the University of Bristol UK. In May 2023 he gave a talk at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa OK to celebrate one year of the Center being open and the 50th anniversary of the first US publication of "Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan."

WHEN NOT TRAVELING MICHAEL GRAY lives in France with his wife (food-writer Sarah Beattie) and a rescued dog named Iris.

______

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
20 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Richard C. Beall
5.0 out of 5 stars Some true, some who cares, some ... put your dukes up! Make you listen anew!
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024
Verified Purchase
This was originally published in 1972 and not really revised. Revising would change it too much. There is a charm in capturing a moment. Some of what is written is dead wrong, some is maybe right but you don't care if you yourself are a song writer, others stuff is thought provoking. The book makes you re-listen to Bob Dylan's records so you can have a fist fight with the author. LOL. The book helps you listen to Bob with a fresh ear. It is a great read!

I finished the book, and here are some final thoughts.

How does culture ultimately remember its poets? What is meaning? Maybe a poem is just a heady drink of its time, the poet like an evaporating alcohol, leaving dried residue at the bottom of the mug.

If you want to know how an English professor thinks about how Bob Dylan thinks, then this is the book for you. It provides insight into the critical apparatus, also accidentally casting aspersions on what the academic critics had to say about Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats. You realize that literary criticism is more of a superimposition of outside ideas ( "isms") and comparisons than any real insight into how the poets created and what their works meant to them. As the poet evaporates, the critic inflates. His analogies and stories grow into a Thanksgiving Day parade held up by clowns with hastily painted faces.

I am not saying that the things said in the book are not true. Is our culture wrong? The book is going to make you relisten to Dylan and enjoy him from a different perspective. And yes, I am going to buy volumes II and II, and read those too once I am recovered from this one. Until then, I am going to write a little poem. Maybe even put it to music. Alas, probably no residue at the bottom of my cup.
Helpful
 Report
Baby Sneaks
4.0 out of 5 stars A superb study, but a bad book
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is an essential analysis of Dylan's work. I found it incredibly enlightening. Why not five stars then? The book stinks, by which I mean, the physical product. I received a book printed by Amazon at a local warehouse. This is not producing a high quality product. My edition has pages cut incorrectly with half-inch notches sticking out of the right bottom corner. As I read, several pages pulled loose from the binding. I am going to have to order a scotch tape from Amazon to put the thing back together. So beware.
Helpful
 Report
DPAM
5.0 out of 5 stars The First and Still The Best
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2023
Verified Purchase
If you love Dylan's songs and singing, you may think they're unexplainable. But what Michael Gray has done - first in 1972 and then in two major updates over the years - is to surround Dylan’s work with detailed context; what influenced him, how he created in new ways, exactly which bits are magical. The effect is to clarify and lift your appreciation for Dylan without demystifying him - he remains remarkable but now for more understandable reasons.

There are a lot of great books on Bob, from many angles. It’s clear why many think this is the greatest of them, particularly of those that try to look at his work (as opposed to his life or some specific aspect of it). The fact that Gray did this first as a young man experiencing 1960s Dylan in real time is amazing. That he kept at it and followed and expanded for the next 50 years is almost unbelievable. Dylan fans are lucky to have both of them.

This new serialized edition gives fans who didn't get one of the earlier editions a new chance to own this great book. Yes it's been out before, but it remains vital and relevant and something any Dylan fan old or new will deeply enjoy. There's also a podcast series on Dylan.FM where the author talks about every chapter and expands on the ideas and issues in this book.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
JW
3.0 out of 5 stars Description By Publisher Is Misleading
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
The 3 book series is marketed as an updated version, but is merely a reprint of the 2000 edition split over 3 books. Disapointing.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Peter ff
5.0 out of 5 stars It’s a well written book
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2024
Verified Purchase
If you are a Bob Dylan fan I would highly recommend it and its companion volumes.

Also, Michael Gray was an English teacher of mine a long, long time ago, in a country far, far away.

I reached out to him to confirm, he responded, and we are now in communication. He was very gracious, he was a good teacher, I passed my English exams!
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
DC
5.0 out of 5 stars A Seminal Work
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2024
Michael Gray’s analysis of Dylan’s work set the standard for how we engage it and remains a seminal text for Dylan scholars and Dylan fans who want to go beyond biography to understand the depth of Dylan’s art. The reissue brings it back to print, giving us access to the work in three volumes that seem less intimidating than the original (and quite massive) book. If you are a Dylan fan or scholar, this is an essential text.
Helpful
 Report
SamT
4.0 out of 5 stars Should be five stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
Great book. Disappointing new version. Four typo mistakes by page 170 already. Figured a new anniversary edition would have been edited better.
Helpful
 Report
M. F. Hacker
5.0 out of 5 stars Dylan treasure back in print!
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2023
The appearance of this re-issue is cause for great celebration, as Michael Gray's work on Dylan still stands out, even after all these years and hundreds of other Dylan books that have followed Gray's first release. Gray is a terrific writer - knowledgable and accessible. Even when he's going deep down musical and historical rabbit holes to ferret out the essence of Dylan's work, there's always a modesty about his writing that leaves plenty of space for the reader's own feelings and interpretation. Reading Gray's work carefully will take some time, but it's a joyful accompaniment to Dylan's musical output spanning more than 60 years
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Robert
5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Book On Dylan
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2023
Verified Purchase
All that needs to be said about this 50th Anniversary book - or rather the earlier editions has been said - read the thousands of reviews. I simply want to comment on the production qualities.

1. A big error is not being available in hardback. Thankfully it is printed in the USA so it is unlikely the pages will yellow like a lot of British printed paperbacks do.

2. I do not like the black semi matte finish. This tyoe of cover lends itself to collecting fingerprints.

3. It is overpriced for a paperback. The author and publishers have made enough money from all the previous iterations. As such I would liked to have seen this more realistically priced. But...Dylan fans beong Dylan fans...!
One person found this helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report